


A Gift In Manacles

by AikoIsari



Category: Fairy Tail
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M, Friendship, Gen, Redemption
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-05-18
Updated: 2016-08-24
Packaged: 2018-06-09 03:59:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 340
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6889117
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AikoIsari/pseuds/AikoIsari
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Erza speaks a few different words and there's an entirely new path just ripe for the running.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. 1

Chaos was nothing new for the guild of Fairy Tail. Getting new members wasn't a new thing either. When it was both at the same time, it was fine.

When the latter came with the arrival of Jellal Fernandez, well… the former was inevitable.

The ruckus of the Fairy Tail building made the prisoner pause. Well, he wasn't a prisoner anymore, not really. A criminal, certainly, but a prisoner? No. Fairy Tail made certain of freedom.

Erza touched his hand with surprising tenderness for a stranger. But she was not a stranger to Jellal, no matter what his lack of memories told him.

"Welcome home."

They are words that neither, in any of their memories, could think of ever saying to one another. But she had promised to be there for him in whatever he needed. And now she was.

"He is in the custody of Fairy Tail," she had declared. "Please allow us to decide his fate from this point forward."

To everyone with no understanding of government, that had been that. And yet it was so much more. Still, Fairy Tail operated on simplicity.

"I'm home," he said, and he wasn't quite aware of the gravity of that statement. Not yet.


	2. 2

There's a Fairy Tail guild mark on his hand and he doesn't know what to do with it.

It looks more like a phoenix wing than a fairy if he's honest. But he isn't sure if he can get away with criticizing them, partially because they're entirely unorthodox unto themselves and also because it might be disrespectful to the dead.

And hasn't he done that enough already?

Erza traces the indigo mark on the top of his hand and for reasons he can't word or name it sends pleasant tingles up and down his spine. She seems so happy, so quietly happy, even while she's snapping at her comrades and dropping Natsu on his rear end.

Jellal laughs. Perhaps he shouldn't be laughing, but he is. And it's good laughter, feel good laughter.

Almost like he belongs.

**Author's Note:**

> To tide me over while i think about OT3 feels. I love this series.
> 
> Challenge: Anime/Manga Diversity Writing E53. write an alternate ending


End file.
